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KFC 200 slow to turn to the right, fine to the left


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In both Heading and Nav mode my autopilot banks only very slowly to the right.  It makes it there eventually but much more slowly than to the left.  This only happens in flight.  On the ground the rate of turn (as apparent from the rate at which the yoke turns) seems the same for both right and left.  The flight director provides proper directions and the system allows me to follow a nav line or heading in cruise.  The only issue is the briskness of movement in one direction vs the other.

Anyone else ever have this problem?  I couldn’t find this failure mode described elsewhere.

Thanks

 

 

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1.) How does your airplane fly with the autopilot off?

2.) If the scenario you're describing is during climb, I'd say it's normal, and your plane needs a bit of right rudder to counteract left-hand turning tendencies.

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The plane flies fine with the autopilot off and the symptoms I’m describing are in cruise, climb, descent, doesn’t matter.  It actually is quite able to track a nav line or hold a heading.  But, as I said, it reacts very lazily to right turn instructions.  So if, say, in heading mode I twist the knob 30 degrees to the left it will overshoot to, maybe, 45 degrees and then slowly correct back.  The FD tells it what to do on time and in the appropriate amounts but it’s slow to react. Same thing happens in nav mode.

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I'm sorry I can't help.  I think we're getting into the realm of an actual avionics shop or Autopilot Central for repair.

I bet it's not as uncommon as it sounds; probably an adjustment of some of the potentiometers in the roll computer, or something like that.  Good luck.

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To close the loop on this Executive Autopilots in Sacramento diagnosed the problem this morning and the answer was ............. a clutch on the aileron servo that was slipping.  It’s supposed to offer 21 inch pounds of resistance and was actually providing just 15.  Now, what was non-obvious was the fact that the problem revealed itself when turning in one direction only but the working hypothesis is that 15 inch pounds were just barely enough if there was no friction in the system and the right aileron wasn’t quite as frictionless as the left.  Anyway, everything works now.

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